We just added the ability to track your Site Builder site with Google Analytics. To enable Google Analytics, you'll first need an account, which you can get here.
You will receive a code, as seen in the image. Go to Site Builder and click "Edit Site Information" under the Administration section. You will see the field available to place your newly minted code. Save the information and republish your site when prompted. That's it!
A couple of warnings about Google Analytics. First, we don't support it in any way. We only facilitate you being able to use them, and do not offer any training on running reports within Google's system. Second, Google Analytics is not set up to track file downloads. We are looking at ways to integrate file tracking, but right now you will only be able to view statistics regarding page views and other user data acquired by Google.
In recent weeks there has been some updates to the Blog system that should be noted. While these are minor, they can be very helpful and help make more content available to those of you who frequently post on the ANR Blogs.
First, change goes out to those wo make comments on posts. Now if you leave a comment and someone else comments on the same post, you should recieve an e-mail letting you know that someone else has commented on the post. We added this because many times people will reply to a comment but the commenter may never know about the reply.
For the second change we now allow users to embed content like YouTube videos into the blogs. Here's one below as an example:
This is quite easy to do but a couple steps should be followed for it to work correctly. First find a video you want to embed or include in your post. Then copy the "Embed" HTML coding and paste the coding into the source code of your post. That is it! Don't worry I'll give more in depth steps in an example below.
In order to embed the YouTube video above. I went to YouTube and found the video I wanted to include. Next to the video is small box where you will find the "Embed" HTML code that can be copied and pasted in to the blog post.
The arrows point to the code that needs to be copied. Here's the steps needed to embed the video into your post.
- Copy "Embed" HTML coding (make sure to copy all the coding)
- Edit your blog post
- Click on the "Source" button in the WYSIWYG editor. (this switches to the HTML view of your post)
- Find the place where you want to include the video.
- Paste the copied HTML code into your blog post.
- Click the source button again.
If all went well you should see an empty box where the video will be displayed with a small green puzzle piece in the middle. To test the video Click "Save and Review" the video should load and be dispalyed inside your post.
If viewing the HTML Source is too confusing there is a second way to paste the "Embed" coding. Simply paste the coding in the text editor without clicking the "source" button. Click "Save and Review" then click "Re-Edit This Post", and the "Embed" HTML coding should be be properly converted. You should see an empty box where the "Embed" coding once was. This method may not always work, but it never hurts to try it if the steps above are too complicated.
Hope this post is informative and helpful!
I would like to announce a New Feature! Not a new feature some of us grew used to going to the drive-in or movie theater to see the latest and greatest horror or sci-fi movie. No this new feature (we hope) will blow your socks off and is what everyone has been waiting for. At least all those with Sitebuilder sites! Oooh, the first clue! Now that your fingers are all tingling with the excitement of anticipation. I would like to take a moment to say this would not be possible without Dave and Karl who also work on Sitebulder to make it happen. So what is this new fandangled feature? It's a mix of two flavors. In one hand take the blog you are reading right now, in the other hand take Sitebuilder (some of you may have guessed that already). Mash the two together and you get something like this:
Web Action Team Site
WAT Home Page
I agree with you, very cool indeed!!! Now you may be asking how do I do this with my blog and my Sitebuilder site? But wait it get's better because some of you are thinking... I have 5 blogs that I want in my Sitebuilder site. Can I do that? Yes you can! Here's how!!!
1) Log into your Sitebuilder site
2) Go to "Edit Home Page"
3) On the right hand menu you will see the "Blog Options" section from there select "manage" and you should see something like this:
Example screen from Sitebuilder admin page.
From the sample you can see the "Web Action Team" blog is active on the site. To select more simply click on "Add Blog to my Site" to remove the Blog from your site click "remove blog". Add all the Blogs your heart desires, remove all the Blogs your heart desires. It's that simple!
There are a few other options that are available but that can be left until next time. Until then I hope this "New Feature" is better then the old!
It seems the ANR Blogs are making a big splash. With much interest in blogging, I finally had some time to make some finishing touches (for now) on the Blog system which some have been asking about. I've pulled out all the stops and put into the system a nice Archive list and the ability to add tags to posts. Right away I discovered that the "Post Archive" is great for seeing how active a blog may be. For some it is painful to see last updated over a year ago! Ouch! For others it is nice to see a long list of posts each month. For the most Posted to Blog check out, Jeannette Warnert's ANR News Blog. With 200 posts since April 2007. That roughly 15.38 posts a month or one every 2 days! No this is not an award of any kind, though if it helped people to post more maybe we could start having awards. Most creative Blog, most innovative use of a Blog, most reliable Blog; are just a few ideas. Along the same lines I've also added a fun reminder system to the Blogs. After a blog has been "idle" with no posts for 3 months, it is automatically deleted... Just kidding!!! I wonder if I scared a few of you out there? Actually I wonder who reads this Blog... You know you can leave comments to these innovative posts... Ok, back to the subject... After 3 months of no Posts the Blog owner gets sent a fun e-mail asking them to post and keep their blog up. These get sent out once a week. For those too busy to post they will notice not all the e-mail's are the same. Some may want to collect them, but I doubt they will be worth anything one day.
Something that is much more valuable is tagging your posts! A tag is like a category, label, or term that can be used to help describe what a post is about. So when making a post you can add as many tags as you like to help categorize the posts. Say I'm writing a story about growing grapes in the winter (unlikely I know but I'm a programmer not a grower) you can add the tags "grapes,winter,viticulture" and so on... Separate each one with a comma and that's it! Well there's more but that's all for adding the tags. Once the tags are added the "Tag List" link will show you all the tags listed in both alphabetical order and in the order of most used to least used. Also at the bottom of each post you will see the tags for the post if there are any available. Each tag may be clicked on to see all the posts in the Blog using that tag. So Tags are the to help you organize your posts and to help others find information in your blog faster. Don't forget to look at the tags I've added to this post.
That's it for today. Until next time... Blog Away!
We all like new features. In fact if something is not new and improved well then we start to think of it as old even if it is the best thing available. Now I know that will never happen to the wonderful ANR Blogs. Everyday they are new with new stories and articles, but today I get to introduce the Blogs with more power than ever before! Today the ANR Blogs have been energized with Flash video! Yes, this means you can add your most powerful Flash FLV video file to the Blogs so others may see!
To power up your own Blog with Flash video simply upload your FLV file and it will be included in the post. Yes! It's that simple! Blog away! I hope this little sample gives you a taste of what the almighty ANR Blogs can do!
